As
you probably already know, SiMPLE offers five different data types: Int, Int2, Float,
Float2, and Text. Of these five, the Text data type
requires some special attention since it is the only one that deals with non-numerical quantities.

Concatenation

As is pointed out in the SiMPLE tutorials:

Because of the unique way in which SiMPLE handles text strings, the concatenation operation will not work as part of a task's (or function's) calling parameters. For example, the program:

In addition, the keyword "Set" will sometimes not work with concatination statements. For example, the statement:

Set a = "SiM" + "PLE"

will not compile. However, the statement:

a = "SiM" + "PLE"

will compile properly.

On the other hand, the statement:

a = "SiM" "PLE"

will not compile. But the statement:

Output ("SiM" "PLE")

will compile properly! (It will display the word: SiMPLE )

Also, the program:

name = "Robert" Output (name + " is your name")

will compile properly. (It will display: Robert is your name)

So, it is possible to concatinate two or more strings when used as a task's (or function's) calling parameters --
provided that all of the strings (except for the first one) are constants. (I.e., only the first string can be in a container.)

Initializing a Text Array

Unlike with the numerical data types (Int, Int2, Float, and Float2), a text array can be initialized only in a Common
statement. For example, the following statement:

Text a[3] = {"AB", "CD", "EF"}

will generate an error message. But the statement:

Common Text a[3] = {"AB", "CD", "EF"}

will compile correctly.

(All of these restrictions are due to irreparable bugs in the SiMPLE compiler.)